


sparks fly whenever you smile

by helsinkibaby



Series: Tennessee Whiskey [6]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Het, Musicians, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 05:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7301488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watching from the side of the stage, Caitlin realises something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sparks fly whenever you smile

**Author's Note:**

> 1_million_words June bingo, prompt "thrill"

It was coming up to the end of the gig and Caitlin and Iris slipped off the stage, made their way into the back of the venue to their shared dressing room. They had this down to a fine art now, knowing they had two songs, maybe a third depending on how Joe felt, to use the bathroom, tidy their hair and fix their lipstick before coming back out for the last few songs. Tonight though, was unusual. Tonight, there was a knock at their dressing room door and it opened a crack before either could answer. 

"Everyone decent?" It was Barry's voice and Iris's smile was as bright as the sun suddenly. 

"What are you doing?" she laughed, pulling the door all the way open and pulling him inside. "Why aren't you on stage?" 

He grinned that giddy, goofy grin he usually got when Iris was within arms reach and the grin only widened when he slid his arms around her waist. "Joe decided he and Cisco are doing a piano only set," he told them. "He's got at least four songs lined up." He grinned down at Iris and actually waggled his eyes. "Thought I'd spend my downtime with my favourite lady." He blinked suddenly, looked at Caitlin. "Ladies.."

Iris chuckled, patted his shoulder fondly. "Smooth. Real smooth."

Caitlin grabbed her water bottle from the dressing table and headed for the door. "I know when I'm not wanted," she laughed. Then, to Iris, "Don't forget to fix your lipstick before you come back out." She was teasing, and even if Iris did narrow her eyes at her, the smile on her lips made it clear to Caitlin that she got the joke. 

The door closed quickly behind her - too quickly, Caitlin thought, for it not to have been given a helping hand - and she chuckled to herself, thinking that if Joe knew what was undoubtedly going on behind closed doors, he'd cut his set short in a hurry. 

Which would never do, because in the nine months since she'd joined the band, she had never seen him do a set like that, just him and Cisco's piano and she was willing to bet that YouTube clips just didn't do it justice. 

Standing in the wings, looking at the stage, she quickly discovered that she was right. 

Impromptu it might have been, amateur it was not. Hartley, their sound engineer, had done a great job of bringing up the piano just enough to show it off but not enough that it overshadowed Joe's voice which was, as ever, the star of the show as it covered one of Caitlin's favourites, the Donny Hathaway version of "A Song for You." And the job Hartley had done might only have been beaten by Linda's brilliant idea of bringing down most of the stage lights, leaving one spot on Cisco in the background and another, brighter one on Joe, front and centre stage. His eyes were closed as he sang into the microphone, one hand holding it tightly, the other gripping the stand, tiny particles of stage dust drifting through the air around him like the magic fairy dust Caitlin's father had told her stories about when she was a child. 

In the months after Ronnie's death, the months Cisco had looked out for her, telling her all manner of tales from the Joe West camp, Caitlin had looked at many video clips, heard him sing hundreds of songs. 

In the months since she'd been with the band, she'd heard him sing even more, had talked to him, grown close to him, opened up to him in a way she had to precious few others. 

But tonight was different. 

Tonight, she stood in the wings and looked at him singing and a thrill unlike anything she'd felt in months shot through her. It made her breath catch in her throat, made her knees go weak and she curled her fingers around the steel railing she was standing beside, hoping the cool metal would negate the heat she suddenly felt coursing through her veins. 

It didn't. 

Things didn't get any better when Joe hit the bridge of the song, when he opened his eyes and turned his head to the left, looking right at her. Their eyes met and she felt a tug at the edges of her lips, a tug that turned into a smile as her heartbeat sped up and it got harder to breathe. 

His eyes held hers and an answering smile spread slowly across his face. He didn't miss a note of the song, didn't move from his spot on the stage but for the rest of the song, she knew that he was singing directly to her, and only to her. 

And when the music faded and the roar of the crowd rang in her ears, it was second only to the pounding of her heart, both thrilled and terrified by what she was feeling. 

But when she stood beside him for the last song, the song that had started it all, she couldn't help but think that everything had just changed for the better. 


End file.
